The Crusaders
by kyuto the ninja
Summary: One wishes to obtain mastery of skill through the soul edge, the other bent on destroying the soul edge. Can they travel together without getting killed, if not by those infected with the evil seed, but by each other? Please Review...
1. Chapter 1

in a forest in the Chinese providence of jing, a lone Japanese samurai, dressed in red and silver traditional samurai armor, walks solemnly, staring at a piece of red, glowing metal in his hand and reflecting on the events that led up to his acquisition of this rare metal. He is Mitsurugi, mercenary samurai who is feared for his incredible skill and strength. As he stands in an almost trance like state, he ponders upon the questions that stand before him.

"Why would a dying man give me something like this, and why did he say it was a shard of soul edge. And, if this truly is a shard soul edge, how could such an unstoppable weapon shatter?"

As he pondered on these thoughts, something startled him. He quickly grabbed the hilt of his katana, shishi-oh, instinctively and looked around, wondering what it was. After thoroughly examining the forest around him, he came to a conclusion,

"… it was probably a damn bird or something" he said, and continued to walk. Yet he still had the strange feeling as if he was being followed or watched. Then he heard a much larger rustling, it was closer this time, he turned around, to see what it was.

"I must be paranoid or something, guess I need something to eat."

However, as he turned around, to continue his journey through the forest, he was surprised to see someone. This someone he knew he had seen before. This person was a female, dressed in a red full body suit that left NOTHING to the imagination. She also had armor on her shoulders and knees, and had two short swords, that miturugi took for ninjato, on her upper and lower back.

"HALT", she barked, then said," I am Taki, demon exterminator, formally of the Fu Ma ninja clan, hand over that shard of metal, or face the consequences!"

But Mitsurugi didn't hear a word; he was preoccupied with something else, namely, Taki's breasts.

"They're huge!" he said to himself. Taki was startled, "Did you not hear me, I said hand over that piece of metal in your hand!"

But Mitsurugi still didn't respond.

" What is wrong with you, are you dumb or something, what are you looking aaa….?" as she said those words, she looked down, and it finally hit her. She then proceeded to throw a four star shuriken at Mitsurugi, which he barely dodged at the last second.

"No one disrespects me that way! Now, I'm not asking you again, hand over that shard of soul edge NOW!" Taki's anger was very obvious to Mitsurugi, but the statement about soul edge is what caught his attention,

" What do you want with my shard of soul edge?" he asked.

"To destroy it, it's existence must be wiped out completely, I'm destroying every shard I come across until I finally get to the the actual sword," she then unsheathed the sword on her lower back, reveling the sword's eerie red aura, and responding," and use this weapon to destroy soul edge once and for all." This remark startled Mitsurugi, and leads him to say,

" Then it seems we are at odds, for I wish to possess the soul edge, and use it to once and for all prove that swordsman strength and skill are superior to that of the Tanegashima!" At this point, both warriors were in fighting position, weapons drawn, and ready to draw blood.

Just as they were charging each other, an unknown voice stopped them dead.

"Ok, you two Japs need to stop for a minute, and here's what you're going to do." The mysterious man appeared to be from the Ming Empire of Korea, and wore a brown, torn vest, a gray work shirt, and old green pants. His green hair and ominously glowing red eyes only added to his deep and demanding voice.

"Mr. Samurai here," he continued," is going to hand over his shard of soul edge, and then miss ninja will hand over her sword there," he pointed to the red, glowing sword of Taki's. "And then, you'll die. For you see, my gang here hasn't killed a single person I almost a week and they need some blood." Suddenly, 12 men, all of the Korean dissent stepped out of the shadows of the forest.

"If you do as I say, your death will be quick, but put up a fight, and, well, your death won't be as comfortable as the first choice. Though," having said that, thoroughly observing Taki several times.

"I think we'll have a little fun with you missy, before you die." After having Mitsurugi gawking at her, and now had a whole gang staring at her body, Taki was a bit up set at this point. But before she could spout a come back, she quickly noticed the man also had a shard of soul edge tied around his neck.

"Hey, samurai, how about instead of me killing you, you help me kill these guys, cause they are pissing me off more than you did."

Mitsurugi responded," Yeah, the fact that these guys are alive is really starting to bug me. And the name's Mitsurugi, don't forget it. " Then he directed his attention to the leader of the gang,

"We'll take choice three instead, the choice where, you attack, we kill you, bathe in your blood, and laugh at your weakness as you lie dying or dead, what do you think, Taki, was it?"

"Marvelous idea, though, since these guys like staring and raping women, I say I give them, a 'proper' end," she said as she ran her finger up the edge of her blade, which lead to her face, which had an almost sadistic smile on it.

"Then let's go!" Mitsurugi yell, and both he and Taki ran toward the bandits, blades flashing, and smiles on their faces.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I forgot to do this on the first chapter, but I do not own any part of soul calibur, from the characters to the game itself. This fan fiction is made to fill the story between the end of Soul Calibur 1 and Mitsurugi and Taki's confrontation in Soul Calibur 2.

A/N: If you're reading this, I hope you're not easily offended, cause if you are, prepare to be offended. So, enjoy!

In the dark Chinese forest, the two warriors, Taki and Mitsurugi, charged their would-be assailants, blades flaring, and ready to spill blood. As they ran toward the gang of 12, the leader having stepped back to let his gang do the dirty work, the men all unsheathed rusty, poorly made Korean blades. Taki knew that her personally made blade Rekki-maru, and the demonic blade Mekki-maru, were more than a match for the gang's weapons. Mitsurugi knew the same thing about his beloved katana Shishi-Oh.

"Half and half seems fair, right?" Taki asked as they charged

"Seems fair enough to me." He responded

Taki was the first to get to the men. The first two men quickly slashed vertically at her, and easily parries with Rekki-maru and Mekki-maru, making it an easier stab to each of their stomachs. As she stabbed through the men and quickly turned the blades left and right, she felt Mekki-maru pulsating, as if it liked the taste of the blood. These pulses made her arm go numb for a moment, making it hard to move, and that was all the other gang members needed. As she slowly took Mekki-maru out of one of the dying men, another man came up and thoroughly kicked her in the stomach, as she went down, another two gang members quickly grabbed her arms so she couldn't move.

As Taki struggled to get loose from the men's grip, the man who kicked her came up and grabbed one of her breasts, and as he groped her, he moved his head up close to Taki's and said,

"You are a whole lot of woman, indeed you are. I can't want till we have you tied up and have some _real_ for some fun!"

At this point Taki was now beyond mad, she was officially pissed. As the man finished his sentence, Taki reared her head back and head butted the man right in the nose. When she heard the loud crunch sound, she knew she had broken his nose. As the man fell to the ground, holding his nose, Taki, without losing a beat, jumped up and did a split kick in the stomachs of her two capturers. As they caved inward, Taki grabbed the man on her left, got behind him, and with authority, snapped his neck. The second man then proceeded to get up and take a horizontal slash at Taki. She easily dodged it by bending over backward, and as the man's arm crossed is body, Taki got up, and stabbed him in the back of the triceps with Rekki-maru, turned the stunned man around, and slit his throat with Mekki-maru. Taki this time anticipated the evil pulse of Mekki-maru, only stopping her for a moment, and avoided putting herself into a paralysis state. As she let the man she had just killed fall to the ground, the member with the broken nose got up, madder than ever.

"You damn bitch! I'm going to kill you now!" the man screamed in a nasally voice, and charged Taki with his sword over his head

Taki simply raised one eyebrow, sheathed her swords, and crossed her arms as the man ran at her. As the man came to swing his sword at her Taki simply stepped to the side and let him pass her. She then proceeded to turn around, unsheathe Rekki-maru, and stab the running man in the kidney, forcing him to fall to the ground in pain.

"Please, don't kill me!" the man pleaded to the ninja that stood over him sheathing Rekki-maru back into place.

"You should have considered that BEFORE you grabbed my breast, you fucking pervert!" With saying that, she grabbed Rekki-maru from its sheath, flipped it around, and impaled it into his throat.

Having finished her batch of men, Taki looked over at how Mitsurugi was doing. What she saw would have made a normal person throw up out of disgust. Two men decapitated; another disemboweled with intestines hanging out, and was currently fighting the last two men at once. The first man came at him quickly, with a diagonal slash, but wasn't fast enough. Mitsurugi simply knocked the sword aside and stabbed the man through the stomach, and turned the blade left and right. The second man saw this as a window of opportunity, and charged Mitsurugi with his sword over his head. When Mitsurugi saw the man get close enough, he let out a kick into the man's stomach. Then turned slightly, drew the sword out of the impaled man, and used the momentum to nearly cut the hunched over man, whom he had just kicked, in half.

Mitsurugi then looked over at what Taki had done.

"Not TOO bad, for a woman I mean, what did you do, beat them with your breasts?" He said with a grin.

"You could look at it that way, yeah" She responded

Mitsurugi then ritualistically sheathed his blade by running the side of the blade up against the sheath and then sheathed it. Then something startled him,

"Wait, what happed to the big mouthed one? I was hoping to chop his lips off before he died." And as he said that, the leader of the former group grabbed Mitsurugi from behind, and unknowingly to Mitsurugi, stole his shard of Soul Edge. The man was then met with a kick to the stomach that sent him back, and as he was flying back, got a large slash in the chest. However, the man didn't care about that; all he cared about was his shards of Soul Edge that he now possessed.

And as the man lay up against a tree, bleeding from his chest, he stared at the shards he now possessed and exclaimed,

"Two shards, I now have two shards of Soul Edge; I can feel my body getting stronger….."

Before the man could finish his sentence, a hand went around his throat abruptly. However, this was no ordinary hand; first off, it was green, and it only had three, large, talon like fingers. Suddenly, another, more human like hand, but still green, grabbed the man's arm that held the shards of Soul Edge and in one fluent motion ripped the man's arm off. The man let out a huge yell of pain, and fell over, holding where his arm used to be.

Then the creature proceeded to step out of the shadows; It had a large upper body, and the arm with the talon like hand had a cross bow like bone sticking out of the wrist. The creature looked like it had a bone for a beard, and had large canine teeth that came out of its mouth. The strangest thing, though, about this creature was the large dome on his chest that glowed an ominous orange light.

The mysterious creature then took the shards from the dismembered hand, and held them close to its body. The creature gave sigh of relief, as if it consoled a pain. When the creature opened its hand again, the shards were gone, absorbed into its strange body.

When the creature looked up at Taki and Mitsurugi, he noticed that both had already grabbed the hilts of their swords, and gestured that they were prepared to fight, but the creature had no business with them. It just turned around and vanished into the darkness of the forest.

"What the hell was that?" Mitsurugi asked.

"I…I don't know, it's form resembled a human, and I have never seen a demon who resembles a human." Taki responded.

"Anyway, let me ask you something, you've been to Europe before, correct?" asked Mitsurugi.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Taki said puzzled.

"Did you learn any of the European languages while you were there?" he asked.

"Well, no, I didn't have the time, I was on a very important mission and I couldn't exactly stop to chat" Taki snapped back.

"Well, I did, and I will take if from that tight little suit of yours, and that small pouch on your back, you don't have any money either. And you don't act like the type that would 'service' men for money, as you kunoichi are so famous for." he said in an almost sarcastic tone.

"Well, I have no need for money, if I need food, I hunt; water, I scavenge, and I'm used to sleeping outside. And no, I don't sleep with men for money!" she angrily said.

"Well, I bet it would be nicer to sleep in a nice, warm bed, huh? To eat warm freshly prepared foods? But since you can't speak any of their languages, you can't get any of those things" he said sarcastically.

"I don't need those things, though they would be nice to have, I don't need them!" she said in an angry tone

"If you travel with me, you can get those nice things. And since that monster, or what ever the hell it was, just stole my only lead to Soul Edge, and your little sword there can track it, it seems that we could use each other, no?"

She then sighed, and said," I… I guess so. Fine, but if you travel with me, no funny business, and you KNOW what I'm talking about. If you don't want to die like that man over there, that is. Understand?" she said to him

"Fine, but you do realize that we will eventually have to fight each other for the rights to Soul Edge? And since you have shown compassion toward me and fighting prowess, I won't kill you." he told her snidely

"Oh, you aren't, I was planning on killing you immediately, but I guess I can TRY not to kill, no promises though." she responded snidely

"Ok" he said with a laugh. "But lets get out of here, murder has a harsh penalty in China, the punishment usually involves returning the favor, so lets get to the trading route and blend in with the traders so we can get out of here." he told Taki

"Yeah, lets go." she said.

"Just try not to attract anymore attention with those breasts of yours; we don't need any more trouble, ok?" Mitsurugi said sarcastically as a joke.

Taki then said, "What is with these outside men and my breasts?" she exclaimed.

She then proceeded to let off some steam by kicking Mitsurugi in the nuts, forcing a loud OOHF from Mitsurugi.

As Mitsurugi set on one knee, holding his groin, he moaned out, "What the hell was that for!"

"For being a man!" she said, and walked off.

"Wait….. wait for me!" Mitsurugi said as he limped forward to catch up.

To be continued…


End file.
